THE GARSH ASSAULT AND THE PRINCESS ANN

FOREWORD

I’ve refused.  I’ve told the world, the universe, that I refuse to see it again – the video that cost me my friends and my freedom.  Every two years, I’m approached by some class, professor or news organization wanting to honor me for my work covering the siege of those damn Ists.  And when asked if they can show it, talk about it, interview me about it, I’ve refused.  I walked out of five award presentations when it was flashed up on the frame.  I hold my anger and never go back.

The memories are still too painful even 50 years later.  I now know why veterans refuse to talk about the serious combat they’ve been in.  I wish I could forget like them, to bury that dreadful experience and turn it into a blank. 

Maybe my mind works differently than the rest.  I can’t forget.  Even today, I can still vividly see the death of my comrades, the ruptured hulls and the tearing of flesh as if it was yesterday.  Maybe it’s what the Baggers did to me.  That special talent they gave me that doesn’t let the creatures of the Enth into my mind to cleanse my soul.

But I’ve relented.  Now I must view that damn video, minute by minute, hour by hour, for I have said yes.  A young protégé has asked for an interview and I will tell all.  All, including those scenes never put into the story, for he found a copy from where it laid hidden these last fifty years.  I thought they were all destroyed but he located the agencies’ backup that had been stored offsite from the main building.  It had not been destroyed by the fire but lay hidden and forgotten since the agency ceased to exist by orders of the Sixth Legion.  Why the Sixth had overlooked it when they destroyed the other recordings that had been far better hidden, I will never know.  The backup still contained all my original recordings from the very beginning of the Ists’ attack, not the short edited version that fragmented the Commonwealth.  These recordings have never been seen before.  I will even allow him to interview me about my experiences in captivity, during and after the siege when I was deprived of my photobuttons.  The full story has never been told for the universe had demanded proof, just not the hearsay of one lone reporter.  Now the hearsay will be corroborated.